Center Grove Orchards!!!

Being in the "big city" of Ames, Iowa sometimes starts to get to a country girl and I just need to get out. Well that is just what my roommate, Rachel and I did this evening. We have been planning to go to a pumpkin patch about 20 minutes from Ames for that past couple of weeks. I was so pumped to go yesterday, but then it rained and our adventure had to be postponed. I must say that I am glad it was because it was a gorgeous fall evening. About 5:00 we put on our old tennis shoes and headed out to the pumpkin patch. We actually didn't get home until 7:30 and we felt like little kids! I can tell you one thing for sure, no one is ever too old to go to a pumpkin patch. In fact, I think it is one thing in life that can keep us all young at heart! Upon our arrival, we snagged a wagon and made the 10 minute trek to the West Orchard where we could pick our own pumpkins and gourds! We spent quite some time searching the field for our favorite pumpkin. I found a neat pumpkin which is really short and fat. I don't think I got a good picture of it, but it basically grows out horizonally instead of up vertically. The variety of my pumpkin is called Cinderella! Rachel found the perfect "Charlie Brown" pumpkin! So we make away with 3 sweet pumpkins and paid a pretty penny. Rachel's weighed 32 pounds and mine was 25 pounds! Crazy huh!?!? After discovering our perfect pumpkins we went through the corn maze and found some fun things to take pictures with! Good thing Center Grove Orchards has a closing time, because we would have stayed out there all night if they let us. However, we slowly made our way back to their Country Store and noticed our car was the last on there. We purchased our pumpkins, apple butter, pumpkin butter, apple cider and pumpkin pancake mix and loaded up our car. One of the guys working there struck up a conversation with us on our way out and he told me that I can come clean pig pens....I can honestly say I almost said YES! I think we are going to go back soon. Oh and we had pumpkin pancakes for supper, they were delcious! Enjoy the pictures of our adventure!